Fourteen Years After Being Sued, Bureau Of Prisons Finally Settles FOIA Lawsuit

from the Forever-Litigation dept

A little less than two years ago, we covered Prison Legal News' FOIA lawsuit against the Bureau of Prisons. While we're aware litigation is seldom a swift process, PLN's ongoing lawsuit was particularly epic: twelve years after filing its initial requests for records covering a period from 1996-2003, the DC Appeals Court reversed the lower court's decision in favor of the US BOP and instructed it to order the government to hand over the requested records to PLN.

Two years after that ruling -- fourteen years after PLN sued -- the government is finally settling the case. The government Taxpayers will be paying out nearly a half-million dollars for more than a decade of government stonewalling and obfuscatory litigation.

From the decision [PDF]:

1. The parties do hereby agree to settle, compromise and dismiss the above-entitled action under the terms and conditions set forth herein.

2. Since Plaintiff filed Civil Action No. 05-01812, Defendant agency has produced material Responsive to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request originally filed by Plaintiff; Plaintiff is satisfied with that production.

3. Defendant agency shall pay Plaintiff a lump sum of $420,000 in attorneys' fees and costs in this matter pursuant to 5 U.S.C. §552(a)(4)(e).

Despite the Appeals Court finding the BOP misused FOIA exemptions and engaged in wildly-inconsistent redactions, the settlement from the government comes with a "this isn't our fault" stipulation.

This Stipulation and Dismissal shall not constitute an admission of liability or fault on the part of the Defendant or Defendant agency or the United States or their agents, servants, or employees, and is entered into by both parties for the sole purpose of compromising disputed claims and avoiding the expenses and risks associated with further litigation.

If the government was really interested in "avoiding the expenses" of further litigation, you'd think it would have settled this case sometime during the last ten years. But the government wasn't interested in ending its litigation. It only decided to settle when it became apparent it wasn't going to win the case. Litigating further would have subjected it (or rather, US taxpayers) to an even larger legal fee payout.

This is how hard the government is willing to fight to keep public records out of the public's hands. Understandably, it was in no hurry to hand out evidence of crimes committed against prisoners by BOP employees, but power is supposed to be tied to accountability. The BOP doesn't care much for accountability or transparency. Since it has unlimited resources and time, engaging in a legal battle whose length rivals that of the War on Terror is no big deal. Only when faced with an inevitable loss did it finally concede, and its concession comes with "this isn't a concession" boilerplate attached.

Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: bop, bureau of prisons, foia, lawsuits, public records


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2017 @ 5:28am

    So basically they get to sweep the case under the rug for the paltry sum of $420,000. Well isn't that just grand!
    Then again given that the system considers rape to be part of the punishment that comes as no surprise.
    In fact I'd say expect more of this as the Trump administration's stand on these issues is to be "hard on crime".

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Annonymouse, 9 May 2017 @ 5:33am

    Until such time that those behind the desks are held personally responsible for their and their departments actions this kind if crap fest will continue

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    Ninja (profile), 9 May 2017 @ 5:41am

    Well, the prison business in the US is profitable and it's ever expanding (possibly faster now). Forget coca or marijuana, open banks or prisons in the US.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    ThomasE, 9 May 2017 @ 6:33am

    Re: personal accountability

    "Until such time that those behind the desks are held personally responsible..."

    Exactly.

    All the guilty people in BOP & Federal Executive branch COMPLETELY escape ANY personal consequences.

    Note that even TD here ... reflexively avoids naming any specific BOP person involved in this case. This further serves to insulate/protect BOP personnel from even simple media accountability.

    The current Director of BOP is Thomas R. Kane -- a career BOP employee who has been a senior BOP manager since 1991.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2017 @ 6:46am

    At what point does a "no admission of fault" clause in a settlement become legally recognized as an admission of fault. Like, has there ever been one where it wasn't abundantly clear that they were at fault?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2017 @ 7:58am

    Re:

    Strange how only the rich, corps & gov are afforded such deals, those of less resources end up in for profit prison because they are guilty and did not have enough money to prove their innocence.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 May 2017 @ 2:04pm

    The information was up for parole?

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.